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ATLAS OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE
ATLAS
of
MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
EDITED BY
ANGUS MACKAY WITH DAVID DITCHBURN
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published in paperback 1997
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Introduction © 1997 Angus MacKay
Selection and editorial matter, bibliography
© 1997 Angus MacKay and David Ditchburn
Individual maps and texts © 1997 The contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
ISBN 0-203-43170-7 Master e-book ISBN
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ISBN 0-415-01923-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12231-7 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Preface
Contributors
PHYSICAL EUROPE
Western Europe: Physical Features
THE EARLY MIDDLEAGES (to c. 1100)
Politics
The Roman Empire in 395 AD
Barbarian Migrations of the Fourth and
Fifth Centuries
Barbarian Kingdoms in the First Half of
the Sixth Century
Merovingian Gaul, c. 600
The Empire of Justinian, 527–65
The Expansion of Islam in the
Mediterranean Area (7th–9th
centuries)
Italy in the Eighth Century
The Carolingian Empire under
Charlemagne, 768–814
Division of the Carolingian Empire, 843
The Byzantine Empire under the
Macedonian Dynasty (9th–11th
Centuries)
Vikings
Magyars
The East European States, c. 1000
France and its Principalities, c. 1000
England Before the Normans
The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest
to c. 1140
The Ottonian Empire, 962
Religion
Christianity and Paganism in the West,
c. 350–750
Early Monasticism to 547
viii
x
3
7
8
9
10
12
14
16
18
21
21
23
25
26
28
30
33
35
38
40
Northern European Monasticism
Byzantine Missions among the Slavs
Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Centres of
Reform
Episcopal Sees in Europe at the End of
the Tenth Century
The Influx of Relics into Saxony
Government, Society and Economy
Royal Carolingian Residential Villas
Burhs and Mints in Late Anglo-Saxon
England
Royal Itineraries: Eleventh-Century
France and Germany
England under William I
Hamwic: Anglo-Saxon Southampton
Dorestad
Constantinople
Early Medieval Rome
Ravenna
Trade Routes of the Carolingian Empire
The Economy of San Vincenzo al
Volturno
Culture
Irish and Anglo-Saxon Centres on the
Continent in the Early Middle Ages
Bede’s World
THE CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES
(c. 1100–c. 1300)
Politics
Angevins and Capetians in the Late
Twelfth Century
Frederick Barbarossa and Germany,
1152–90
Frederick Barbarossa and the Lombard
League
42
44
45
46
50
51
52
53
55
57
57
58
59
60
61
63
65
66
71
72
72
v
The Empire of the Comneni,
1081–1185
Anglo-Norman Penetration of Wales and
Ireland
Scotland in the Central Middle Ages
The Normans in Southern Italy and Sicily
Where Did the Crusaders Come From?
The Routes of the First Crusade
The Second and Third Crusades
The Crusades of the Emperor Frederick
II and St Louis
The Crusader States
The Templar Network
Crusader Jerusalem
Crusader Acre
Frederick II, the Papacy and Italy
Italy in the Second Half of the Thirteenth
Century
The Ostsiedlung
Scandinavia, the Germans and the Baltic
The Premyslide—Habsburg Conflict in
Central Europe
The Mongol—Tatar Invasions of the
Thirteenth Century and Their Impact
on the West
France in the Reign of Philip the Fair
The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest
During the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries
75
77
79
84
85
86
87
88
89
91
92
93
93
96
97
99
102
104
106
107
Religion
Latin Episcopal Sees at the End of the
Thirteenth Century
Cistercians, Premonstratensians and
Others
Mendicants
Béguines and Beghards
The Papacy and the Conciliar Fathers of
1215
Shrines and Revivals: Popular
Christianity, c. 1200–c. 1300
Heresy, the Albigensian Crusade and the
Inquisition, c. 1200–c. 1240
122
Government, Society and Economy
Provisioning War in the Twelfth Century
The Rise of Representative Assemblies
European Fairs and Trade Routes
The Alpine Passes
125
127
129
131
vi
110
114
117
117
119
119
The Larger Towns of Europe
Families of Town Law
The Contado of Lucca in the Twelfth
Century
Communal Movements
Settlement Patterns in Medieval Italy
The Huerta of Valencia
The Thirteenth-Century Repopulation of
Andalusia
Anti-Semitism, 1096–1306
Culture
The Twelfth-Century Renaissance:
Translation and Transmission
Romanesque Europe
Gothic Europe
The Travels of Villard de Honnecourt
The Spread of the Old French Epic
Troubadours: Centres of Creativity and
Travels of the Poets
Languages, c. 1200
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (c. 1300–
c. 1500)
Politics
The Hundred Years War
The Growth of the Burgundian State
The Scottish Wars of Independence
Wales: The Principality and the Marches
Ireland: English and Gaelic Lordship,
c. 1350
The Emergence of Switzerland
Late Medieval Scandanavia: Unity and
Disunity
Emperors and Princes: Germany in the
Later Middle Ages
Northern Italy from the Rise of the
Signori to the Peace of Lodi
The Expansion of the Crown of Aragon
The Wars of the Roses
Late Medieval Scotland: Crown and
Magnates, c. 1400 and c. 1460
Late Medieval Iberia
The Advance of the Turks and the
Crusade in the Later Middle Ages
The Rise of Muscovy and the Union of
Lithuania and Poland
132
133
135
137
138
141
142
145
147
148
149
150
152
153
154
159
162
164
164
168
170
171
172
174
176
177
179
182
184
186
Religion
The Avignon Papacy and Papal Fiscality
The Great Schism and the Councils
The Papal States
Byzantine Cultural and Monastic Centres
The Bohemian Lands and the Hussite
Wars, 1415–37
Government, Society and Economy
The Growth of Royal Fiscality and
Administration in France
Burgundian Administration
Castilian Corregidores
Representation at the Castilian Cortes,
1445–74
Parliamentary Representation in Later
Medieval England
The Government of Later Medieval
Germany
The Spread of the Black Death
The German Hanse
Financial Centres in Western Europe
Late Thirteenth-Century Brunswick
Istanbul
Novgorod in the Later Middle Ages
188
189
191
192
194
197
201
201
204
205
205
209
211
213
215
215
216
The Swabian Town League
Late Medieval Seville
Deserted English Villages
Late Medieval Transhumance in Western
Europe
European Expansion at the End of the
Middle Ages
The Jacquerie
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
Christians, Jews and Conversos in Late
Medieval Iberia
Consequences of the Black Death:
Pogroms in Germany
216
217
218
219
222
226
226
229
230
Culture
Knightly Journeys
Margery Kempe
The Spread of Printing
Journeys of Major Italian Artists Between
c. 1250 and c. 1400
The Rediscovery of Classical Texts
The Rise of Universities
237
239
241
Further Reading
Index
244
255
232
232
235
vii
PREFACE
The preparation of an atlas of the history of
Europe during the Middle Ages presents
numerous and complex difficulties. In the first
place the period to be covered stretches from the
late fourth century down to the late fifteenth (or
even early sixteenth) century. In addition,
however, an atlas of this kind evidently cannot
be confined to Western Europe: Byzantium and
Eastern Europe have to be included, as indeed
do such important matters as the exploits of
crusading Europeans overseas, the impact of
Muslims or Mongols, travel abroad, and the early
voyages of discovery. In terms of social groupings
equally formidable problems present themselves.
Obviously the main political events from the fall
of the Roman Empire down to the battles and
treaties of the Hundred Years War have to be
included, but so too do the activities of other
protagonists; for example, popes and anti-popes,
those who attended and participated in the great
Church Councils or in parliamentary assemblies,
Italian and Hanseatic merchants, tax collectors,
women, colonists, peasants, shepherds (and their
sheep), Jews and New Christians, heretics,
writers and translators, troubadours, and
architects and artists. Despite the difficulties
inherent in such a task, however, the inclusion
of such varied facets offers some positive
advantages. For in addition to the emperors,
kings, princes and great nobles, the artisans and
peasants who participated in the French
Jacquerie or the English revolt of 1381 left their
mark on the period, as indeed did the humble
Béguines and Beghards.
An atlas is an essential tool for the study of
medieval history. This has long been recognized,
viii
but I believe that no adequate solution, specifically
designed for this purpose, exists. When I was a
student, which was admittedly a long time ago,
we were advised to use a German atlas which was
incredibly
detailed
and
well
nigh
incomprehensible. The present atlas does not aim
at minute detail compressed into a few cluttered
maps. On the contrary, the main objective has been
clarity, and each map is accompanied by an
explanatory text.
Using nearly 140 maps, the atlas spans the
entire medieval period. The actual selection of
maps to be included was primarily determined
by the years of undergraduate teaching
experienced by the editor and contributors.
I am extremely grateful to all those colleagues
who have helped in preparing this volume.
Those who have contributed the maps, the
accompanying texts and suggestions for further
reading (contained in the bibliography) have
suffered from my incessant demands, requests
for clarification and advice, and all the delays
inevitable in bringing such a co-operative
enterprise to its conclusion. I owe a special debt
to David Ditchburn whose efficiency and
versatile talents have frequently made me
ashamed of my own shortcomings.
It was Richard Stoneman who originally
conceived of the project, and his constant
encouragement and exemplary patience have
been much appreciated. His successive
assistants—Anita Roy, Jackie Dias, Kate Morrall
and particularly Victoria Peters—have all
displayed charitable forbearance when dealing
with my absent-mindedness.
Finally, special thanks are due to the
cartographer, Jayne Lewin, for her skill in
converting rough drafts or even mere sketches
into clear maps, dealing patiently with late
changes, and in resolving contradictions implicit
in some of the difficult instructions sent in by
contributors.
I hope that university undergraduates, senior
school pupils and professional historians will
find the atlas useful and rewarding. I also
imagine that enlightened tourists interested in
the history and culture of the countries they are
visiting may benefit from the maps and
commentaries provided by the expert
contributors.
Angus MacKay
Department of History
University of Edinburgh
ix
CONTRIBUTORS
Frances Andrews, University of St Andrews
Michael J.Angold, University of Edinburgh
Malcolm C.Barber, University of Reading
Robert J.Bartlett, University of St Andrews
Ian Beavan, University of Aberdeen
Philip Bennett, University of Edinburgh
Louise M.Bourdua, University of Aberdeen
Thomas S.Brown, University of Edinburgh
Simon Coates, University of Edinburgh
Antonio Collantes de Terán, University of Seville
M.Gary Dickson, University of Edinburgh
David Ditchburn, University of Aberdeen
Marilyn Dunn, University of Glasgow
Robin Frame, University of Durham
Manuel González Jiménez, University of Seville
Anthony Goodman, University of Edinburgh
Alexander Grant, University of Lancaster
Philip Hersch, University of Edinburgh
John C.Higgitt, University of Edinburgh
Richard A.Hodges, University of Sheffield
Michael C.E.Jones, University of Nottingham
Derek Lomax, University of Birmingham
(deceased)
Raymond McClusky, Glasgow
Martin McLaughlin, University of Oxford
Norman Macleod, University of Edinburgh
Malyn D.D.Newitt, University of Exeter
Richard Oram, University of Aberdeen
Richard Rose, University of Glasgow
Michael L.Ryder, University of Edinburgh
Ross Samson, Glasgow
Roger Tarr, University of Edinburgh
Alfred Thomas, Rutgers University
Elspeth M.Turner, University of Edinburgh
Ian Wei, University of Bristol
Christopher J.Wickham, University of
Birmingham
PHYSICAL EUROPE
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
(to c. 1100)
POLITICS
The Roman Empire in 395 AD
By 395 AD the Roman Empire had changed
considerably since the time of its first emperor
Augustus (27 BC–14 AD). Increased external
pressures, deteriorating economic conditions and
political disorder aggravated by dynastic
insecurity and the ambitions of generals led to
the abandonment of outlying provinces and a
period of prolonged upheaval in the third
century. A major reorganization introduced by
Diocletian (284–305) and continued by
Constantine (306–37) saw the elevation of the
emperor into a remote autocrat along Eastern
lines, the creation of a large bureaucracy and a
division of the army into a two-tier force
consisting of elite mobile units and poorer quality
local troops. In an attempt to improve local
efficiency and to minimize the risk of revolt
Diocletian doubled the number of provinces and
grouped them into dioceses under vicarii, while
Constantine established a separation of powers
between civil governors and military
commanders. After defeating his opponents at
the Milvian Bridge (312), Constantine became a
Christian and promoted what had been a
minority faith by appointing Christians to key
positions and endowing the Church with lands
and buildings. Theological divisions remained
acute, however, and pagan rites were not
proscribed until the reign of Theodosius I (378–
95). Constantine’s transfer of the capital to the
strategic site of Byzantium, re-named
Constantinople in 330, reflected both his
commitment to his new faith and the increasing
importance of the East in the empire.
These changes produced a measure of political
and economic stability although Constantine’s
dynasty was riven by family disputes and it died
out after the death of the short-lived pagan
emperor Julian fighting the Persians in 363.
During the reigns of the succeeding emperors
barbarian pressure on the frontiers increased,
partly as a result of the arrival of the Hun nomads
in Europe in the 370s. The Visigoths successfully
requested asylum in the empire in 376, but illtreatment led them to turn against the Romans
and to wipe out a Roman army at the battle of
Adrianople (378), in which the emperor Valens
was killed. This defeat was a great blow to
Roman prestige, but the direct effects were
limited. The Goths were granted lands in the
Balkans as foederati (allies) and order was restored
by the staunchly Christian Spanish emperor
Theodosius I.
Following Theodosius’ death in 395 a critical
stage in the transformation of the Roman world
occurred with the division of the empire between
his sons Honorius (West) and Arcadius (East).
While the myth of imperial unity was
maintained, tension grew between the two
courts. The Eastern empire remained relatively
powerful as a result of its greater wealth and
population and its relative immunity from
barbarian pressure and the dangerous influence
which German mercenaries exercised in the
West. Christianity became strongly entrenched,
and, despite bitter christological controversies,
served to reinforce imperial authority by treating
the empire as an instrument of divine policy. In
the West, however, fundamental economic and
social weaknesses were aggravated by court
intrigues, the self-interest of the senatorial elite
and frequent revolts by usurpers. While Roman
administration, society and culture remained
resilient at the highest levels, the decentralization
of the pars occidentalis was reflected in the growth
of non-Roman cultures (as in Britain and North
Africa) and the rise of local political allegiances
(as in Gaul) even before the full effects of the
barbarian migrations were felt in the fifth century.
T.S.Brown
7
Barbarian Migrations of the Fourth and
Fifth Centuries
The pressure from ‘barbarians’ (mostly Germans)
which the Roman Empire had experienced from
the late second century became more intense in
the late fourth century. This Volkerwanderung
(wandering of the peoples) involved unstable
amalgams of diverse groups, many of whom
settled gradually and relatively peacefully. The
pressure of steppe nomads such as the Huns from
c. 370 played a role, but probably more important
were rivalries among the Germanic peoples, the
formation of confederacies under aggressive
military leaders from the third century and the
opportunities presented to booty-hungry warleaders and their retinues by Rome’s political,
military and financial weaknesses and the
increasing alienation of Roman provincials from
centralized rule.
The first serious case of Germanic penetration
8
occurred after 376, as Visigothic and Ostrogothic
tribes living beyond the Danube sought refuge
as Roman allies (foederati) within the empire.
Tension led to the battle of Adrianople in which
a largely Visigothic force defeated a Roman army
and killed the emperor Valens. Although a treaty
was soon arranged the Visigoths continued to
ravage Greece and Illyricum until, in 402, they
entered Italy under the leadership of Alaric. A
cat-and-mouse game took place while the
imperial government in Ravenna prevaricated
in the face of Gothic demands for land and gold.
Finally Alaric’s exasperation led to the sack of
Rome in August 410—an enormous blow to
Roman morale. Alaric died soon afterwards and
his brother-in-law Ataulf led the Goths to
southern Gaul, where they were recognized as
foederati by a treaty in 416. Under their kings
Theodoric I and II and Euric, they built up a
powerful state based on Toulouse which had
generally good relations with the Roman
aristocracy and established overlordship in
Spain.
The German peoples who had remained north
of the Danube (Herules, Gepids, Rugi, Skiri and
Ostrogoths) became subjects of the Huns, who
built up a tributary empire under Attila (434–53).
While launching regular attacks on the east
Roman provinces in the Balkans, Attila remained
friendly with Aetius, the dominant force in the
west, until he was induced to launch
inconclusive raids into Gaul (checked by his
defeat at Chalons in 451) and northern Italy. The
collapse of the Hun empire following Attila’s
death in 453 led to renewed pressure by
Germanic bands (Ostrogoths, Rugi and others)
on the Danube frontier.
Meanwhile northern Gaul had been thrown
into confusion by the rupture of the Rhine
frontier in late 406 by a mixed barbarian force
dominated by Vandals, Suevi and Alans. While
some Alans became Roman allies in Gaul, others
joined the Vandal invasion of Spain in 409. The
Suevi set up a robber kingdom based on Galicia
which lasted until 585. In the face of Visigoth
pressure the Vandals sailed to Africa in 429 and
were granted the western provinces by a treaty
of 435. Their able king, Geiseric, seized Carthage
in 439, occupied the rest of Roman Africa and
launched a series of lucrative naval raids,
occupying Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and
sacking Rome in 455. Following his death in 477
the aggressive and confiscatory policies towards
the Roman aristocracy and the Catholic Church
gave way to a generally more conciliatory and
Romanizing regime.
The collapse of the Rhine frontier in 406/7 had
wide repercussions. Britain saw its Roman
garrison withdrawn and the assumption of
power by rival British chieftains until the AngloSaxon invasions in the late 440s. The
Burgundians were permitted to set up a kingdom
on the upper Rhine in 413. Transferred as
federates to the Jura/Lake Geneva area in 443,
they built up a Romanized kingdom
incorporating the Lyon and Vienne areas from
457. Along the middle and lower Rhine groups
of Franks became powerful and attacked cities
such as Cologne and Trier. In northern Gaul
Roman rule was undermined by obscure rivalries
between usurping generals, Bretons, peasant
rebels (Bagaudae), Alans and the sub-Roman
regimes of Aegidius and his son Syagrius based
on Soissons (c. 456–86). The long-term
beneficiary of this power vacuum was the Salian
Frank dynasty of Childeric (d. 481) and his son
Clovis, who gradually expanded from their
original centre of Tournai by conquering or
allying themselves with rival bands of Franks,
including established laeti (soldier-farmers).
T.S.Brown
Barbarian Kingdoms in the First Half of
the Sixth Century
By 500 the Roman Empire in the west had been
replaced by powerful Germanic kingdoms.
Prominent were the Frankish kingdom built up
in northern Gaul by the Frankish rulers Childeric
(d. 481) and his son Clovis (481–511) and the
Ostrogothic kingdom established in Italy by
Theoderic (489–526). Any semblance of stability
in the west was, however, shattered over the next
four decades. After his victory over the kingdom
of Toulouse at Vouillé in 507 Clovis took over
most of south-west Gaul and the Visigoths were
compelled to transfer their political base to Spain,
with their eventual capital at Toledo. The
kingdom of their Ostrogothic cousins fell into
decline on Theoderic’s death as a result of
dynastic uncertainties and tension between proRoman and traditionalist elements. Two of the
initially powerful kingdoms were conquered in
533–4: the Burgundians’ territories in south-east
Gaul were incorporated by the Franks and Van
9
dal rule in North Africa was ended by the
lightning campaign of the Byzantine general
Belisarius. In 534 the Ostrogoths became the next
target of the emperor Justinian’s dream of
restoring Roman power in the west and
Belisarius’ forces invaded Italy in 536. Despite
fierce resistance by a Gothic army in the north
led by Witigis, Belisarius occupied Ravenna in
540. In the 540s the tide turned, thanks to the
divisions and corruption of the imperialists, and
the able Gothic ruler Totila was able to claw back
most of the peninsula. By 552, however, new
forces dispatched from the east under Narses
defeated the Ostrogothic army. Nevertheless,
isolated pockets of Gothic resistance held out in
the north until the 560s and Italy lay devastated
by years of war. Justinian’s attempted reconquista
of the west went a step further in 551, when an
enclave around Cartagena was seized from the
Visigothic kingdom of Spain and remained
Byzantine until the 620s. However, economic
weaknesses and new pressure from the Avars,
Slavs and Persians prevented Byzantium from
consolidating its gains, and most of Italy was lost
to the Lombards from 568. The dominant power
in the west became, not the empire, but its
nominal ally, the Catholic kingdom of the Franks.
T.S.Brown
Merovingian Gaul, c. 600
Although Clovis had extended the Merovingian
kingdom over most of Gaul, for much of the sixth
and seventh centuries it was beset by the strife
vividly chronicled by the historian Gregory of
10
Tours (d. 594). In 511 a complex division took
place between Clovis’ four sons, which ham
pered efficient royal administration. The
Burgundian kingdom was taken over in 534
and Provence in 536. Theudebert I (533–48)
expanded his territory east of the Rhine and even
beyond the Alps, but this overlordship collapsed
after his death. The kingdom was then reunited
under Clothar, but partition between his four
sons on his death in 561 soon led to civil war
and an increasing sense of identity within each
Teilreich (part-kingdom).
The murder of King Sigibert of Austrasia in
575 provoked bitter conflict. For several decades
the dominant force was Sigibert’s widow, the
Visigoth Brunhilda, but in 613 she was executed
and the kingdom was reunited under Clothar II
of Neustria (584–629). His son Dagobert I (623–
38) proved the last effective Merovingian ruler,
as royal power was undermined by the alienation
of rights and estates, the loss of Byzantine
subsidies and tribute from client peoples east of
the Rhine and the growing power of counts and
other territorial magnates. Subsequent
Merovingian ‘do-nothing kings’ were incapable
of ruling personally and power fell into the hands
of aristocratic factions led by the mayors of the
palace, such as the Arnulfings, the hereditary
mayors of the palace of Austrasia. Under Pepin
II this family capitalized on its powerful
following in the north-east and its alliance with
the Church to become the dominant force
throughout the kingdom from 687. A serious
revolt followed Pepin’s death in 714 but effective
power over Neustria and the Merovingian
puppet-kings was restored by his illegitimate son
Charles Martel (d. 741), who enhanced the power
and prestige of his dynasty (the Carolingians) by
his campaigns against Saxons, Alamans,
Thuringians and Bavarians and most famously
by his defeat of an Arab invading force at Poitiers
in 733.
The conflicts of the Merovingian period
should not obscure its achievements. The
kingdom remained the most powerful force in
the west as a result of its military strength, its
relatively centralized structures, a number of
centres of religious and cultural life, and the
assimilation which occurred between a small
Frankish elite and Gallo-Roman elements
prepared to adopt Frankish laws and customs.
T.S.Brown
The Empire of Justinian, 527–65
When Justinian ascended the throne (527), the
empire had reasonably well-defined frontiers: the
Danube, the Euphrates, and the Arabian and
Egyptian deserts. They were defended by
powerful frontier fortresses, such as Singidunum,
Dara and Edessa. Such threats as there were, the
Sassanian Persians in the east, the Bulgars along
the lower Danube, and the desert tribes, were
more or less contained. Internally there were the
rivalries of the circus factions, but religious
divisions were more serious. The emperor and
the Church at Constantinople were caught
between those who valued ecclesiastical unity
and the link with the papacy enshrined at the
council of Chalcedon (451) and those who
favoured an independent Byzantine Church. The
latter had been in the ascendant since c. 484,
when the Acacian schism separated the Churches
12
of Rome and Constantinople. Even before
coming to the throne Justinian worked for
communion with Rome, which was achieved in
518. This reorientation implied an increased
interest in the west, largely dominated by
Germanic tribes which had adopted the Arian
heresy. There was some discrimination against
the native Catholic communities, and in North
Africa under the Vandals outright persecution.
Justinian saw himself as protector of the Catholic
Church. In 533 he launched an expedition against
the Vandals, and his commander, Belisarius, took
Carthage, the Vandalic capital, and recovered the
North African provinces. Next Justinian
interfered in Ostrogothic Italy. In 535 Belisarius
seized Sicily and invaded Italy. The key was
Rome, which Belisarius took in 536. His
successful defence of the city sapped Ostrogothic
resistance, and he entered their capital of
Ravenna in 540. The Ostrogoths were confined
to the Po valley.
These relatively easy victories were to be
tested over the next decade. The Sassanian king
of kings, Chosroes I (531–79), sacked Antioch
in 540, and his armies captured Petra which
commanded access to the Black Sea and control
of Lazica. In 544 the city of Edessa beat off a
Persian attack and a truce was concluded. Both
sides were suffering from the effects of the
bubonic plague which had struck in 541/2. The
loss of life at Constantinople was calamitous.
The administration and the economy were
paralysed. The Ostrogoths recovered most of
Italy and the Slavs, massed along the Danube,
raided deep into the European provinces of the
empire. Justinian’s government slowly began
to recover its equilibrium. In 550 the European
provinces were cleared of Slav raiders. In 552
Narses invaded Italy with an army depending
heavily on contingents recruited beyond the
Danube from the Herules, the Gepids and
Lombards. The Ostrogoths were overwhelmed
and Italy was restored to the empire.
Meanwhile an expedition, despatched in 550,
recovered southern Spain from the Visigoths,
as well as the North African coast around
Septem (Ceuta). Along the eastern frontier
Petra was recovered from the Sassanians in 551
and with it control of Lazica. In the desert war
the Ghassanids, an Arab tribe allied to the
Byzantines, bested the Lakmids, who were
clients of the Sassanians. In 562 a peace was
concluded between Persia and Byzantium,
designed to last for fifty years. Among other
things it regulated cross-border trade, trade
routes being an element in ByzantineSassanian rivalry. The Byzantines were
dependent on these for raw silk to feed their
industry which was centred on Berytus.
Thanks to heavy investment in fortifications
the Danube frontier held, but there was intense
pressure from the tribes, Slavs and others, who
crowded along it. To counter this, Justinian
turned to the Avars, recently arrived from
central Asia and settled to the north of the
Crimea. It was a miscalculation. After
Justinian’s death the Avars destroyed the
Gepids in 567, pushed the Lombards into Italy,
and intensified Slav raiding of Byzantine
territories. It contributed to the eventual
disintegration of Justinian’s empire which was
already apparent in the ecclesiastical field,
where independent Churches were coming
into being in Syria and Egypt. It has been said
that Justinian’s reign witnessed a belated
attempt to unify a far-flung Empire that was
gradually losing its cohesion’.
M.Angold
The Expansion of Islam in the
Mediterranean Area (7th–9th Centuries)
Within ten years of Mohammad’s death in 632
the armies of Islam stormed out of Arabia,
overwhelmed the Sassanians of Persia, and
wrested Syria, Palestine and Egypt from the
Byzantine Empire. The Arabs were formidable
because of their mobility. In 636 they
concentrated at Yarmuk beyond the Jordan and
completely defeated the Byzantine armies. The
victory brought them Damascus, which became
their headquarters. In 637/8 Jerusalem fell,
followed quickly by Antioch and Edessa. The
14
conquest of Palestine and Syria was completed
in 642 when Caesarea was captured. Gaza had
already fallen, and the conquest of Egypt was
completed with the surrender of Alexandria
(642).
The Byzantine Empire had to meet the challenge.
It contained the Arabs in Anatolia by evolving the
theme system of defence. Initially, this meant
dividing Anatolia into three military commands:
Opsikion, Anatolikon and Armeniakon. The
Opsikion, originally the strategic reserve, was now
quartered across the approaches to Constantinople.
The Anatolikon was the old army of the East, but
now withdrawn to defend south-eastern Anatolia.
The Armeniakon was the army of Armenia, now
established in northern Anatolia and covering the
routes from Melitene and the middle Euphrates.
The threat from the Arabs was all the more
formidable because they took to the sea. They
occupied Cyprus (649–50) and destroyed the
Byzantine fleet at Phoinix (655) off the coast of
Anatolia. Constantinople was blockaded from 674
to 678, but this attack was beaten off with Greek
fire. Another assault similarly failed in 718. From
then on Constantinople and Anatolia were
relatively secure, though there were intermittent
raids down to the mid-ninth century, some
penetrating to within striking distance of
Constantinople.
The Byzantines were less successful in holding
the Arabs in the Mediterranean. Carthage finally
succumbed in 697, and from their new capital of
Kairuan the Arabs converted the Berbers. This
fuelled the Muslim advance into Spain. Toledo,
the Visigothic capital, fell in 711 and by 718 the
conquest of Spain was virtually complete. The
Muslims advanced northwards across the
Pyrenees, but their defeat in 732 by the Franks at
the battle of Tours limited any further conquests
in this area. Their efforts were concentrated in
the Mediterranean. Crete fell in 824 and a start
was made on the conquest of Sicily from the
Byzantines. They established a base at Palermo,
but it was not until 878 that the Byzantine
provincial capital of Syracuse fell. In 840 Bari was
captured and became the centre of an emirate
which terrorized southern Italy and the Adriatic.
It was recovered in 876 by the Byzantines and a
degree of stability was restored in the central
Mediterranean.
The Muslim advance stretched Byzantine
resources to their limit, for it was also involved
in the Balkans. In 582 Sirmium fell to the Avars,
and their Slav tributaries swarmed into the
Balkans. They settled on a permanent basis and
penetrated as far south as the Peloponnese,
where Monemvasia provided a refuge for the
native population. In 679 the Bulgarians crossed
the Danube and settled the lands to the south.
Byzantine territories were now limited to Thrace
and a few towns along the fringes of the Aegean,
such as Thessalonica, which withstood a series
of Slav sieges. To hold these areas the themes of
Thrace and Hellas were established at the end of
the seventh century. From the late eighth century
a determined effort was made to strengthen the
Byzantine hold in Europe. This culminated in the
reoccupation of the Peloponnese and the creation
(c. 805) of the theme of the Peloponnese with its
headquarters at Corinth.
The Byzantine Empire survived the assaults
and losses of territory which occurred from the
seventh to the early ninth centuries. In many
ways, it emerged all the stronger, thanks to its
capital Constantinople and the evolution of the
theme system.
M.Angold
Italy in the Eighth Century
The invasion launched by war-bands of Lombard
and other peoples led by Alboin in 568 had a
decisive effect on the map of Italy for centuries.
Much of the north was rapidly conquered,
including Milan in 569 and Pavia in 572. The
inadequate Byzantine garrisons were thrown
into disarray, Lombard raiding parties
penetrated into Tuscany and the Rome area and
semi-autonomous duchies were set up in the
16
south at Spoleto and Benevento. Gradually the
empire was able to put up more effective
resistance by exploiting Lombard divisions,
bribing the Franks to invade the Lombard
kingdom, recruiting Lombard renegades as
mercenaries and concentrating authority in the
hands of one military governor, known by 584
as the exarch. By 603, when a truce was declared,
the empire retained secure control of the Rome
and Ravenna areas, together with a corridor
following the line of the Via Amerina through
Umbria, and coastal enclaves around Venice,
Genoa, Naples and other southern cities.
For much of the seventh century the frontier
remained static, broken by King Rothari’s capture
of Genoa in 643 and the defeat of the Emperor
Constans’ expedition against Benevento in 663/
4. As the empire became increasingly endangered
by threats in the east, more power within the
Byzantine territories was exercised by the local
military garrisons and their leaders, and in the
case of Rome by the pope. In the Lombard
kingdom dynastic instability did not prevent
increasing prosperity and adoption of Roman
institutions. By c. 680 the Lombards had dropped
their Arian and pagan beliefs in favour of
Catholic Christianity and secured recognition
from the empire. Gradually their pressure on the
imperial provinces increased, as the Romans
became discontented with the religious and
taxation policies of the eastern empire and King
Liutprand (712–44) attempted to unite the
peninsula under Lombard rule. Resistance to
such a take-over was led by the popes, who
remained essentially loyal to Byzantium, but they
were unable to gain any substantial aid from their
imperial ‘protectors’. Following the Lombard
Aistulf’s capture of Ravenna in 751, and threats
to Rome itself, Pope Stephen II obtained the
intervention of the Frankish king Pepin III, who
defeated Aistulf and recognized sweeping papal
claims over much of central Italy (Donation of
Pepin, 756). Threats were renewed by Aistulf’s
successor Desiderius against Pope Hadrian I,
who called on Pepin’s son Charles to intervene
in 773. In 774 Charles captured Pavia and became
king of the Lombards. The Lombard kingdom
retained its distinctive social and governmental
institutions and only gradually did an influx of
Frankish officials and an increase in the wealth
and power of the Church take place.
The political map of Italy remained confused
in the late eighth century. Benevento (unlike its
neighbour to the north, Spoleto) remained
outside effective Frankish control and became a
principality and a centre of traditional Lombard
legitimacy under Desiderius’ son-in-law Arichis,
often allying itself with Byzantium to preserve
its independence. The empire itself retained Sicily
and its footholds in Calabria and Apulia, together
with the nominal allegiance of the maritime cities
of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples and Venice. Its province
of Istria fell to the Franks in the late eighth
century. The papacy’s claim to much of central
Italy, including southern Tuscany, Spoleto, as well
as the duchy of Rome and the old Exarchate, was
zealously propagated by Lateran officials on the
basis of the Donation of Constantine (a
contemporary forgery) as well as the vague
promises of the Frankish kings. In no sense,
however, did it amount to a papal state. In many
areas the papacy was more concerned with
estates and rights than overall jurisdiction, while
in others the Franks were induced by bribes or
Realpolitik to leave power in the hands of local
figures such as the archbishop of Ravenna. Even
in the duchy of Rome, the papacy’s authority was
far from secure, as was shown by the revolt
against Pope Leo III (795–816), which led to the
latter’s appeal to Charles for aid and the Frankish
king’s assumption of the imperial title in St
Peter’s on Christmas Day 800.
T.S.Brown
The Carolingian Empire under
Charlemagne, 768–814
Charles Martel (mayor of the palace 717–41) and
Pepin III (mayor 741–51, king 751–68) established
the dominance of the Arnulfing/ Carolingian
family in Francia by their military success against
18
Arabs, Aquitanians, Frisians and various peoples
east of the Rhine, by building networks of
aristocratic support and by forging a close
alliance with the Church. Following his election
as king of the Franks with papal approval in 751,
Pepin launched two expeditions against the
Lombards and spent his last years campaigning
against the Aquitanians and Saxons. On Pepin’s
death the kingdom was divided between his two
sons, but on the death of the younger, Carloman,
in 771, the elder, Charles ‘the Great’
(Charlemagne) became sole king. An energetic
and charismatic war-leader, he exploited the
superior numbers and technology of the
Prankish army in campaigns against the Saxons
(772, 775, 776), against the Lombards, whose
kingdom he took over in 774, and against the
Spanish Muslims, an unsuccessful expedition
culminating in the massacre of his rearguard by
Basques in 778. The 780s saw renewed campaigns
against the Saxons (780, 782, 784, 785), visits to
Italy to see his close ally the pope and intimidate
the Lombard duchy of Benevento (781, 787), and
the deposition of Duke Tassilo of Bavaria (788).
In the 790s Charlemagne turned his attention to
the powerful tributary empire of the Avars,
which he destroyed in a series of campaigns (791,
795 and 796).
Charles also became increasingly involved
with non-military matters. He began to attract
scholarly advisers to his court, such as the
Englishman Alcuin in 782, he constructed a new
palace complex at Aachen (his main winter
residence from 794), expressed his theological
views in the Libri Carolini (794) and developed
diplomatic ties with the Caliphate of Baghdad
and Byzantium (with whom marriage alliances
were planned). The seizure of sole power by the
Empress Irene in 797 and the blinding of Pope
Leo III in 799 proved the catalysts for the most
controversial event of his reign—his intervention
in Rome in 800 and coronation as Roman
emperor by the restored pope on Christmas Day.
The imperial title should be seen less as the
culmination of Charles’ policies or as a key stage
in the formation of a distinct Western identity
than as the product of particular, mainly local
factors. The idea of a Christian Roman Empire
19
clearly had an appeal to Charles’ ecclesiastical
advisers and an emphasis on imperial renovatio
can be found in art, coins, charters, writings
associated with the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’
and the issue of new more ambitious capitularies.
In practice, however, the imperial title proved a
hindrance to Charles, by tying his office too
closely to the papacy and Rome and
antagonizing Byzantium. Disenchantment is
reflected in Charles’ divisio regnorum between his
three sons in 806, which makes no mention of an
empire, and his personal coronation of Louis the
Pious in 813. No serious attempt was made to
create a new universal identity for Charles’
subjects. Instead a clear ethnic distinction was
stressed between Franks and other ethnic groups
by the writing down of separate laws for each
people ruled by Charles. The machinery for
administering the ‘empire’ remained crude, with
a minimal central bureaucracy and overdependence on powerful local counts.
20
Innovations such as the use of capitularies,
inspectors (missi) and legal advisers (scabini) were
largely ineffective. Government depended more
on success in war, with its consequent flow of
land and booty, and personal ties such as oaths
and grants of benefices to royal vassals and
others.
Charles’ less active later years were marked
by feelings of decline, by concern about the
succession and by external threats posed by the
Danes, Arabs and Slavs. The fragility of his
empire became evident during the reign of his
conscientious but ill-advised son Louis (814–40).
However, the fundamental structural
weaknesses should not obscure the overriding
commitment of Charles and his advisers to
learning, justice and the reform of the Church,
aspirations which were only realized in part but
served as lasting ideals for later medieval rulers.
T.S.Brown
Division of the Carolingian Empire, 843
The mismatch between administrative
weaknesses and ideological aspirations in
Charlemagne’s empire gave rise to problems in
the reign of his son Louis the Pious (814–40).
Although his early rule was conscientious,
personal and party conflicts provoked civil war
between the king and his sons from 830. After
Louis’ death in 840 his eldest son, Lothar, whose
power-base was Italy, sought to impose his
power as emperor north of the Alps and deprive
his half-brother Charles the Bald of his
inheritance in west Francia. This encouraged
Charles to make an alliance with his other halfbrother, Louis the German, and together they
defeated Lothar at Fontenoy in 841. The alliance
was consolidated by oaths taken by each king’s
followers at Strasbourg in 842. Lothar was
compelled at Verdun in 843 to agree to a division
of the empire into three approximately equal
parts. Lothar kept his imperial title and lands
stretching from the North Sea to Italy, which
incorporated the imperial centres of Aachen,
Pavia and Rome, while Charles obtained the west
Frankish lands and Louis those east of the Rhine.
This arrangement was not envisaged as replacing
the empire by nascent nation-states, but in
practice centrifugal pressures were increased by
rivalries between the rulers and the pressures of
aristocratic supporters to regain offices and lands
lost in the division.
Lothar’s kingdom lacked viability and was
divided in 855 among his three sons, none of
whom had male heirs. As a result the kingdom
of Lothar II (855–69) in the low countries was
carved up between his uncles, Louis and Charles.
In west Francia Charles fought manfully against
Viking invaders and aristocratic separatism and
succeeded in becoming emperor after the death
of his nephew, Louis II, in 875. However, after
his death (877) his descendants proved
incompetent and short-lived. Louis the German
proved the strongest king, but on his death (876)
his kingdom was divided, and his sons died in
rapid succession, apart from the youngest,
Charles the Fat, who ruled a reunited empire
fortuitously and ignominiously from 884 until
his deposition in 887.
T.S.Brown
The Byzantine Empire under the
Macedonian Dynasty (9th–11th
Centuries)
From the mid-ninth century Byzantium took the
offensive, responding to changes beyond its
frontiers. After the battle of the Bishop’s Meadow
(863) the Arabs were never a real threat to
Anatolia. Along the eastern frontier petty
emirates emerged, not all of them in Muslim
hands. Tephrike, for example, was held by the
heretical Paulicians. Its capture in 878 brought
the Byzantines within striking distance of the
upper Euphrates. Care was taken to consolidate
advances by creating new border themes, such as
Mesopotamia and Lykandos (c. 900). Melitene,
key to the middle Euphrates, fell in 934, and
Theodosioupolis (Erzerum) in 949, allowing the
Byzantines to exercise more influence in
Armenian lands, where a policy of piecemeal
annexation was pursued. In 968 the Armenian
principality of Taron was annexed and turned
into a theme. These advances were complemented
by the conquest of Tarsus and of Cilicia (965).
Antioch fell in 969 and the city of Aleppo was
put under tribute. The eastern frontier thus
advanced from the Taurus mountains and the
Pontic Alps to northern Syria and the lands of
the middle and upper Euphrates.
In the Mediterranean the Byzantines were still
on the defensive in the early tenth century, but
the Arab corsairs of Crete were driven out in 960/
21
61 and Cyprus was taken in 965. Further
successes in the eastern Mediterranean were
checked by the arrival of the Fatimids in Egypt
(969). They quickly extended into Palestine and
Syria.
Conditions had also changed rapidly to the
north of the Black Sea. Ever since the seventh
century Byzantium had relied on alliance with
the Khazars. From the early ninth century,
however, a new people appeared in the shape of
the Russians, who controlled the rivers leading
from the Baltic Sea and the Caspian. Byzantium
reacted by creating a theme in the Crimea centred
on Cherson (833). This did not prevent a Russian
attack nearly taking Constantinople by surprise
(860). Other Russian attacks followed in 907 and
941, but Byzantium countered by offering the
Russians valuable trading concessions.
The Russians also had to contend with the
Petcheneks, the dominant power on the steppes.
Byzantium cultivated them—they could cut the
Russian trade route down the Dnieper from Kiev,
and they also threatened the Bulgarians across
the Danube. The conversion of the latter to
Orthodoxy in 865 promised to bring them within
the Byzantine orbit, but the Bulgarian tsar,
Symeon (c. 893–927), was a more able opponent
than his pagan forebears. He won notable
victories over the Byzantines, including the battle
of Acheloos (917), and in 921, 922 and 924
advanced to the walls of Constantinople. He
mastered the Balkans and even penetrated the
Peloponnese. He died in 927 and Byzantium
hastened to make peace with his son Peter (927–
69). Over the next forty years the balance of
power swung towards the Byzantines. In 967 the
Russian prince of Kiev, Svjatoslav, was called in
against the Bulgarians, but he determined to
conquer Bulgaria himself. The Russians were
finally defeated by the Byzantines at Silistria on
the Danube (971) and Bulgaria was annexed. The
returning Russians were caught by the
Petcheneks and Svjatoslav was killed. It was a
text-book demonstration of Byzantine
diplomacy. Svjatoslav’s death prepared the way
for the conversion of his son Vladimir to
Christianity.
Vladimir helped the Emperor Basil II (976–
1025) deal with a rebellion by the eastern themes,
thus contributing to his victory at Abydos (989).
These internal problems allowed the Bulgarians
to establish a new state centred on Ohrid in
Macedonia. Basil II concentrated on reducing the
Bulgarians. Victory at Kleidion (1014) was
decisive and by 1018 all resistance had collapsed.
Basil II now extended Byzantine control in
Armenia, annexing Vaspurakan (1021). He also
strengthened Byzantium’s hold in southern Italy,
defeating the Lombards at Cannae (1018). It was
an imposing achievement, but his successors
found it hard to defend the new frontiers.
M.Angold
Vikings
Between 800 and 1100 the peoples of Scandinavia
went from being an Iron Age to a fully medieval
society. The profound social transformations are
reflected in the changes in their adventurous
expeditions and in their use of silver at home.
Before 800 silver wealth was stored in jewellery,
often huge arm rings or brooches. We assume
many of these circulated as gifts, bride wealth,
blood money and plunder. By the twelfth century
kings had coins minted bearing their likeness and
most silver, in the shape of coins, was used in
straightforward financial exchanges or the
payment of rent or taxes or tithes. Whether silver
was the motor of social change or simply an
indispensable element of political and social
competition in an increasingly hierarchical
Scandinavian society, the Vikings burst out of
their homeland dramatically and often
terrifyingly in search of it.
In the ninth century they raided and traded
for silver, but to call these early Vikings
merchants is anachronistic. In Iceland’s famous
23
Njálssaga, a main character attempts to obtain hay
from a neighbour, asking if he would sell it to
him (denying any social relationship between
them), next if he would give it to him as a gift
(offering future friendship), and finally he had
to threaten to take it (confirming their enmity).
In the east, Swedes travelled huge distances
trading and swapping, buying and selling,
gifting and stealing at entrepots and towns a
ATLAS
of
MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
EDITED BY
ANGUS MACKAY WITH DAVID DITCHBURN
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published in paperback 1997
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Introduction © 1997 Angus MacKay
Selection and editorial matter, bibliography
© 1997 Angus MacKay and David Ditchburn
Individual maps and texts © 1997 The contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
ISBN 0-203-43170-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-73994-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-01923-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12231-7 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Preface
Contributors
PHYSICAL EUROPE
Western Europe: Physical Features
THE EARLY MIDDLEAGES (to c. 1100)
Politics
The Roman Empire in 395 AD
Barbarian Migrations of the Fourth and
Fifth Centuries
Barbarian Kingdoms in the First Half of
the Sixth Century
Merovingian Gaul, c. 600
The Empire of Justinian, 527–65
The Expansion of Islam in the
Mediterranean Area (7th–9th
centuries)
Italy in the Eighth Century
The Carolingian Empire under
Charlemagne, 768–814
Division of the Carolingian Empire, 843
The Byzantine Empire under the
Macedonian Dynasty (9th–11th
Centuries)
Vikings
Magyars
The East European States, c. 1000
France and its Principalities, c. 1000
England Before the Normans
The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest
to c. 1140
The Ottonian Empire, 962
Religion
Christianity and Paganism in the West,
c. 350–750
Early Monasticism to 547
viii
x
3
7
8
9
10
12
14
16
18
21
21
23
25
26
28
30
33
35
38
40
Northern European Monasticism
Byzantine Missions among the Slavs
Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Centres of
Reform
Episcopal Sees in Europe at the End of
the Tenth Century
The Influx of Relics into Saxony
Government, Society and Economy
Royal Carolingian Residential Villas
Burhs and Mints in Late Anglo-Saxon
England
Royal Itineraries: Eleventh-Century
France and Germany
England under William I
Hamwic: Anglo-Saxon Southampton
Dorestad
Constantinople
Early Medieval Rome
Ravenna
Trade Routes of the Carolingian Empire
The Economy of San Vincenzo al
Volturno
Culture
Irish and Anglo-Saxon Centres on the
Continent in the Early Middle Ages
Bede’s World
THE CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES
(c. 1100–c. 1300)
Politics
Angevins and Capetians in the Late
Twelfth Century
Frederick Barbarossa and Germany,
1152–90
Frederick Barbarossa and the Lombard
League
42
44
45
46
50
51
52
53
55
57
57
58
59
60
61
63
65
66
71
72
72
v
The Empire of the Comneni,
1081–1185
Anglo-Norman Penetration of Wales and
Ireland
Scotland in the Central Middle Ages
The Normans in Southern Italy and Sicily
Where Did the Crusaders Come From?
The Routes of the First Crusade
The Second and Third Crusades
The Crusades of the Emperor Frederick
II and St Louis
The Crusader States
The Templar Network
Crusader Jerusalem
Crusader Acre
Frederick II, the Papacy and Italy
Italy in the Second Half of the Thirteenth
Century
The Ostsiedlung
Scandinavia, the Germans and the Baltic
The Premyslide—Habsburg Conflict in
Central Europe
The Mongol—Tatar Invasions of the
Thirteenth Century and Their Impact
on the West
France in the Reign of Philip the Fair
The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest
During the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries
75
77
79
84
85
86
87
88
89
91
92
93
93
96
97
99
102
104
106
107
Religion
Latin Episcopal Sees at the End of the
Thirteenth Century
Cistercians, Premonstratensians and
Others
Mendicants
Béguines and Beghards
The Papacy and the Conciliar Fathers of
1215
Shrines and Revivals: Popular
Christianity, c. 1200–c. 1300
Heresy, the Albigensian Crusade and the
Inquisition, c. 1200–c. 1240
122
Government, Society and Economy
Provisioning War in the Twelfth Century
The Rise of Representative Assemblies
European Fairs and Trade Routes
The Alpine Passes
125
127
129
131
vi
110
114
117
117
119
119
The Larger Towns of Europe
Families of Town Law
The Contado of Lucca in the Twelfth
Century
Communal Movements
Settlement Patterns in Medieval Italy
The Huerta of Valencia
The Thirteenth-Century Repopulation of
Andalusia
Anti-Semitism, 1096–1306
Culture
The Twelfth-Century Renaissance:
Translation and Transmission
Romanesque Europe
Gothic Europe
The Travels of Villard de Honnecourt
The Spread of the Old French Epic
Troubadours: Centres of Creativity and
Travels of the Poets
Languages, c. 1200
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (c. 1300–
c. 1500)
Politics
The Hundred Years War
The Growth of the Burgundian State
The Scottish Wars of Independence
Wales: The Principality and the Marches
Ireland: English and Gaelic Lordship,
c. 1350
The Emergence of Switzerland
Late Medieval Scandanavia: Unity and
Disunity
Emperors and Princes: Germany in the
Later Middle Ages
Northern Italy from the Rise of the
Signori to the Peace of Lodi
The Expansion of the Crown of Aragon
The Wars of the Roses
Late Medieval Scotland: Crown and
Magnates, c. 1400 and c. 1460
Late Medieval Iberia
The Advance of the Turks and the
Crusade in the Later Middle Ages
The Rise of Muscovy and the Union of
Lithuania and Poland
132
133
135
137
138
141
142
145
147
148
149
150
152
153
154
159
162
164
164
168
170
171
172
174
176
177
179
182
184
186
Religion
The Avignon Papacy and Papal Fiscality
The Great Schism and the Councils
The Papal States
Byzantine Cultural and Monastic Centres
The Bohemian Lands and the Hussite
Wars, 1415–37
Government, Society and Economy
The Growth of Royal Fiscality and
Administration in France
Burgundian Administration
Castilian Corregidores
Representation at the Castilian Cortes,
1445–74
Parliamentary Representation in Later
Medieval England
The Government of Later Medieval
Germany
The Spread of the Black Death
The German Hanse
Financial Centres in Western Europe
Late Thirteenth-Century Brunswick
Istanbul
Novgorod in the Later Middle Ages
188
189
191
192
194
197
201
201
204
205
205
209
211
213
215
215
216
The Swabian Town League
Late Medieval Seville
Deserted English Villages
Late Medieval Transhumance in Western
Europe
European Expansion at the End of the
Middle Ages
The Jacquerie
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
Christians, Jews and Conversos in Late
Medieval Iberia
Consequences of the Black Death:
Pogroms in Germany
216
217
218
219
222
226
226
229
230
Culture
Knightly Journeys
Margery Kempe
The Spread of Printing
Journeys of Major Italian Artists Between
c. 1250 and c. 1400
The Rediscovery of Classical Texts
The Rise of Universities
237
239
241
Further Reading
Index
244
255
232
232
235
vii
PREFACE
The preparation of an atlas of the history of
Europe during the Middle Ages presents
numerous and complex difficulties. In the first
place the period to be covered stretches from the
late fourth century down to the late fifteenth (or
even early sixteenth) century. In addition,
however, an atlas of this kind evidently cannot
be confined to Western Europe: Byzantium and
Eastern Europe have to be included, as indeed
do such important matters as the exploits of
crusading Europeans overseas, the impact of
Muslims or Mongols, travel abroad, and the early
voyages of discovery. In terms of social groupings
equally formidable problems present themselves.
Obviously the main political events from the fall
of the Roman Empire down to the battles and
treaties of the Hundred Years War have to be
included, but so too do the activities of other
protagonists; for example, popes and anti-popes,
those who attended and participated in the great
Church Councils or in parliamentary assemblies,
Italian and Hanseatic merchants, tax collectors,
women, colonists, peasants, shepherds (and their
sheep), Jews and New Christians, heretics,
writers and translators, troubadours, and
architects and artists. Despite the difficulties
inherent in such a task, however, the inclusion
of such varied facets offers some positive
advantages. For in addition to the emperors,
kings, princes and great nobles, the artisans and
peasants who participated in the French
Jacquerie or the English revolt of 1381 left their
mark on the period, as indeed did the humble
Béguines and Beghards.
An atlas is an essential tool for the study of
medieval history. This has long been recognized,
viii
but I believe that no adequate solution, specifically
designed for this purpose, exists. When I was a
student, which was admittedly a long time ago,
we were advised to use a German atlas which was
incredibly
detailed
and
well
nigh
incomprehensible. The present atlas does not aim
at minute detail compressed into a few cluttered
maps. On the contrary, the main objective has been
clarity, and each map is accompanied by an
explanatory text.
Using nearly 140 maps, the atlas spans the
entire medieval period. The actual selection of
maps to be included was primarily determined
by the years of undergraduate teaching
experienced by the editor and contributors.
I am extremely grateful to all those colleagues
who have helped in preparing this volume.
Those who have contributed the maps, the
accompanying texts and suggestions for further
reading (contained in the bibliography) have
suffered from my incessant demands, requests
for clarification and advice, and all the delays
inevitable in bringing such a co-operative
enterprise to its conclusion. I owe a special debt
to David Ditchburn whose efficiency and
versatile talents have frequently made me
ashamed of my own shortcomings.
It was Richard Stoneman who originally
conceived of the project, and his constant
encouragement and exemplary patience have
been much appreciated. His successive
assistants—Anita Roy, Jackie Dias, Kate Morrall
and particularly Victoria Peters—have all
displayed charitable forbearance when dealing
with my absent-mindedness.
Finally, special thanks are due to the
cartographer, Jayne Lewin, for her skill in
converting rough drafts or even mere sketches
into clear maps, dealing patiently with late
changes, and in resolving contradictions implicit
in some of the difficult instructions sent in by
contributors.
I hope that university undergraduates, senior
school pupils and professional historians will
find the atlas useful and rewarding. I also
imagine that enlightened tourists interested in
the history and culture of the countries they are
visiting may benefit from the maps and
commentaries provided by the expert
contributors.
Angus MacKay
Department of History
University of Edinburgh
ix
CONTRIBUTORS
Frances Andrews, University of St Andrews
Michael J.Angold, University of Edinburgh
Malcolm C.Barber, University of Reading
Robert J.Bartlett, University of St Andrews
Ian Beavan, University of Aberdeen
Philip Bennett, University of Edinburgh
Louise M.Bourdua, University of Aberdeen
Thomas S.Brown, University of Edinburgh
Simon Coates, University of Edinburgh
Antonio Collantes de Terán, University of Seville
M.Gary Dickson, University of Edinburgh
David Ditchburn, University of Aberdeen
Marilyn Dunn, University of Glasgow
Robin Frame, University of Durham
Manuel González Jiménez, University of Seville
Anthony Goodman, University of Edinburgh
Alexander Grant, University of Lancaster
Philip Hersch, University of Edinburgh
John C.Higgitt, University of Edinburgh
Richard A.Hodges, University of Sheffield
Michael C.E.Jones, University of Nottingham
Derek Lomax, University of Birmingham
(deceased)
Raymond McClusky, Glasgow
Martin McLaughlin, University of Oxford
Norman Macleod, University of Edinburgh
Malyn D.D.Newitt, University of Exeter
Richard Oram, University of Aberdeen
Richard Rose, University of Glasgow
Michael L.Ryder, University of Edinburgh
Ross Samson, Glasgow
Roger Tarr, University of Edinburgh
Alfred Thomas, Rutgers University
Elspeth M.Turner, University of Edinburgh
Ian Wei, University of Bristol
Christopher J.Wickham, University of
Birmingham
PHYSICAL EUROPE
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
(to c. 1100)
POLITICS
The Roman Empire in 395 AD
By 395 AD the Roman Empire had changed
considerably since the time of its first emperor
Augustus (27 BC–14 AD). Increased external
pressures, deteriorating economic conditions and
political disorder aggravated by dynastic
insecurity and the ambitions of generals led to
the abandonment of outlying provinces and a
period of prolonged upheaval in the third
century. A major reorganization introduced by
Diocletian (284–305) and continued by
Constantine (306–37) saw the elevation of the
emperor into a remote autocrat along Eastern
lines, the creation of a large bureaucracy and a
division of the army into a two-tier force
consisting of elite mobile units and poorer quality
local troops. In an attempt to improve local
efficiency and to minimize the risk of revolt
Diocletian doubled the number of provinces and
grouped them into dioceses under vicarii, while
Constantine established a separation of powers
between civil governors and military
commanders. After defeating his opponents at
the Milvian Bridge (312), Constantine became a
Christian and promoted what had been a
minority faith by appointing Christians to key
positions and endowing the Church with lands
and buildings. Theological divisions remained
acute, however, and pagan rites were not
proscribed until the reign of Theodosius I (378–
95). Constantine’s transfer of the capital to the
strategic site of Byzantium, re-named
Constantinople in 330, reflected both his
commitment to his new faith and the increasing
importance of the East in the empire.
These changes produced a measure of political
and economic stability although Constantine’s
dynasty was riven by family disputes and it died
out after the death of the short-lived pagan
emperor Julian fighting the Persians in 363.
During the reigns of the succeeding emperors
barbarian pressure on the frontiers increased,
partly as a result of the arrival of the Hun nomads
in Europe in the 370s. The Visigoths successfully
requested asylum in the empire in 376, but illtreatment led them to turn against the Romans
and to wipe out a Roman army at the battle of
Adrianople (378), in which the emperor Valens
was killed. This defeat was a great blow to
Roman prestige, but the direct effects were
limited. The Goths were granted lands in the
Balkans as foederati (allies) and order was restored
by the staunchly Christian Spanish emperor
Theodosius I.
Following Theodosius’ death in 395 a critical
stage in the transformation of the Roman world
occurred with the division of the empire between
his sons Honorius (West) and Arcadius (East).
While the myth of imperial unity was
maintained, tension grew between the two
courts. The Eastern empire remained relatively
powerful as a result of its greater wealth and
population and its relative immunity from
barbarian pressure and the dangerous influence
which German mercenaries exercised in the
West. Christianity became strongly entrenched,
and, despite bitter christological controversies,
served to reinforce imperial authority by treating
the empire as an instrument of divine policy. In
the West, however, fundamental economic and
social weaknesses were aggravated by court
intrigues, the self-interest of the senatorial elite
and frequent revolts by usurpers. While Roman
administration, society and culture remained
resilient at the highest levels, the decentralization
of the pars occidentalis was reflected in the growth
of non-Roman cultures (as in Britain and North
Africa) and the rise of local political allegiances
(as in Gaul) even before the full effects of the
barbarian migrations were felt in the fifth century.
T.S.Brown
7
Barbarian Migrations of the Fourth and
Fifth Centuries
The pressure from ‘barbarians’ (mostly Germans)
which the Roman Empire had experienced from
the late second century became more intense in
the late fourth century. This Volkerwanderung
(wandering of the peoples) involved unstable
amalgams of diverse groups, many of whom
settled gradually and relatively peacefully. The
pressure of steppe nomads such as the Huns from
c. 370 played a role, but probably more important
were rivalries among the Germanic peoples, the
formation of confederacies under aggressive
military leaders from the third century and the
opportunities presented to booty-hungry warleaders and their retinues by Rome’s political,
military and financial weaknesses and the
increasing alienation of Roman provincials from
centralized rule.
The first serious case of Germanic penetration
8
occurred after 376, as Visigothic and Ostrogothic
tribes living beyond the Danube sought refuge
as Roman allies (foederati) within the empire.
Tension led to the battle of Adrianople in which
a largely Visigothic force defeated a Roman army
and killed the emperor Valens. Although a treaty
was soon arranged the Visigoths continued to
ravage Greece and Illyricum until, in 402, they
entered Italy under the leadership of Alaric. A
cat-and-mouse game took place while the
imperial government in Ravenna prevaricated
in the face of Gothic demands for land and gold.
Finally Alaric’s exasperation led to the sack of
Rome in August 410—an enormous blow to
Roman morale. Alaric died soon afterwards and
his brother-in-law Ataulf led the Goths to
southern Gaul, where they were recognized as
foederati by a treaty in 416. Under their kings
Theodoric I and II and Euric, they built up a
powerful state based on Toulouse which had
generally good relations with the Roman
aristocracy and established overlordship in
Spain.
The German peoples who had remained north
of the Danube (Herules, Gepids, Rugi, Skiri and
Ostrogoths) became subjects of the Huns, who
built up a tributary empire under Attila (434–53).
While launching regular attacks on the east
Roman provinces in the Balkans, Attila remained
friendly with Aetius, the dominant force in the
west, until he was induced to launch
inconclusive raids into Gaul (checked by his
defeat at Chalons in 451) and northern Italy. The
collapse of the Hun empire following Attila’s
death in 453 led to renewed pressure by
Germanic bands (Ostrogoths, Rugi and others)
on the Danube frontier.
Meanwhile northern Gaul had been thrown
into confusion by the rupture of the Rhine
frontier in late 406 by a mixed barbarian force
dominated by Vandals, Suevi and Alans. While
some Alans became Roman allies in Gaul, others
joined the Vandal invasion of Spain in 409. The
Suevi set up a robber kingdom based on Galicia
which lasted until 585. In the face of Visigoth
pressure the Vandals sailed to Africa in 429 and
were granted the western provinces by a treaty
of 435. Their able king, Geiseric, seized Carthage
in 439, occupied the rest of Roman Africa and
launched a series of lucrative naval raids,
occupying Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and
sacking Rome in 455. Following his death in 477
the aggressive and confiscatory policies towards
the Roman aristocracy and the Catholic Church
gave way to a generally more conciliatory and
Romanizing regime.
The collapse of the Rhine frontier in 406/7 had
wide repercussions. Britain saw its Roman
garrison withdrawn and the assumption of
power by rival British chieftains until the AngloSaxon invasions in the late 440s. The
Burgundians were permitted to set up a kingdom
on the upper Rhine in 413. Transferred as
federates to the Jura/Lake Geneva area in 443,
they built up a Romanized kingdom
incorporating the Lyon and Vienne areas from
457. Along the middle and lower Rhine groups
of Franks became powerful and attacked cities
such as Cologne and Trier. In northern Gaul
Roman rule was undermined by obscure rivalries
between usurping generals, Bretons, peasant
rebels (Bagaudae), Alans and the sub-Roman
regimes of Aegidius and his son Syagrius based
on Soissons (c. 456–86). The long-term
beneficiary of this power vacuum was the Salian
Frank dynasty of Childeric (d. 481) and his son
Clovis, who gradually expanded from their
original centre of Tournai by conquering or
allying themselves with rival bands of Franks,
including established laeti (soldier-farmers).
T.S.Brown
Barbarian Kingdoms in the First Half of
the Sixth Century
By 500 the Roman Empire in the west had been
replaced by powerful Germanic kingdoms.
Prominent were the Frankish kingdom built up
in northern Gaul by the Frankish rulers Childeric
(d. 481) and his son Clovis (481–511) and the
Ostrogothic kingdom established in Italy by
Theoderic (489–526). Any semblance of stability
in the west was, however, shattered over the next
four decades. After his victory over the kingdom
of Toulouse at Vouillé in 507 Clovis took over
most of south-west Gaul and the Visigoths were
compelled to transfer their political base to Spain,
with their eventual capital at Toledo. The
kingdom of their Ostrogothic cousins fell into
decline on Theoderic’s death as a result of
dynastic uncertainties and tension between proRoman and traditionalist elements. Two of the
initially powerful kingdoms were conquered in
533–4: the Burgundians’ territories in south-east
Gaul were incorporated by the Franks and Van
9
dal rule in North Africa was ended by the
lightning campaign of the Byzantine general
Belisarius. In 534 the Ostrogoths became the next
target of the emperor Justinian’s dream of
restoring Roman power in the west and
Belisarius’ forces invaded Italy in 536. Despite
fierce resistance by a Gothic army in the north
led by Witigis, Belisarius occupied Ravenna in
540. In the 540s the tide turned, thanks to the
divisions and corruption of the imperialists, and
the able Gothic ruler Totila was able to claw back
most of the peninsula. By 552, however, new
forces dispatched from the east under Narses
defeated the Ostrogothic army. Nevertheless,
isolated pockets of Gothic resistance held out in
the north until the 560s and Italy lay devastated
by years of war. Justinian’s attempted reconquista
of the west went a step further in 551, when an
enclave around Cartagena was seized from the
Visigothic kingdom of Spain and remained
Byzantine until the 620s. However, economic
weaknesses and new pressure from the Avars,
Slavs and Persians prevented Byzantium from
consolidating its gains, and most of Italy was lost
to the Lombards from 568. The dominant power
in the west became, not the empire, but its
nominal ally, the Catholic kingdom of the Franks.
T.S.Brown
Merovingian Gaul, c. 600
Although Clovis had extended the Merovingian
kingdom over most of Gaul, for much of the sixth
and seventh centuries it was beset by the strife
vividly chronicled by the historian Gregory of
10
Tours (d. 594). In 511 a complex division took
place between Clovis’ four sons, which ham
pered efficient royal administration. The
Burgundian kingdom was taken over in 534
and Provence in 536. Theudebert I (533–48)
expanded his territory east of the Rhine and even
beyond the Alps, but this overlordship collapsed
after his death. The kingdom was then reunited
under Clothar, but partition between his four
sons on his death in 561 soon led to civil war
and an increasing sense of identity within each
Teilreich (part-kingdom).
The murder of King Sigibert of Austrasia in
575 provoked bitter conflict. For several decades
the dominant force was Sigibert’s widow, the
Visigoth Brunhilda, but in 613 she was executed
and the kingdom was reunited under Clothar II
of Neustria (584–629). His son Dagobert I (623–
38) proved the last effective Merovingian ruler,
as royal power was undermined by the alienation
of rights and estates, the loss of Byzantine
subsidies and tribute from client peoples east of
the Rhine and the growing power of counts and
other territorial magnates. Subsequent
Merovingian ‘do-nothing kings’ were incapable
of ruling personally and power fell into the hands
of aristocratic factions led by the mayors of the
palace, such as the Arnulfings, the hereditary
mayors of the palace of Austrasia. Under Pepin
II this family capitalized on its powerful
following in the north-east and its alliance with
the Church to become the dominant force
throughout the kingdom from 687. A serious
revolt followed Pepin’s death in 714 but effective
power over Neustria and the Merovingian
puppet-kings was restored by his illegitimate son
Charles Martel (d. 741), who enhanced the power
and prestige of his dynasty (the Carolingians) by
his campaigns against Saxons, Alamans,
Thuringians and Bavarians and most famously
by his defeat of an Arab invading force at Poitiers
in 733.
The conflicts of the Merovingian period
should not obscure its achievements. The
kingdom remained the most powerful force in
the west as a result of its military strength, its
relatively centralized structures, a number of
centres of religious and cultural life, and the
assimilation which occurred between a small
Frankish elite and Gallo-Roman elements
prepared to adopt Frankish laws and customs.
T.S.Brown
The Empire of Justinian, 527–65
When Justinian ascended the throne (527), the
empire had reasonably well-defined frontiers: the
Danube, the Euphrates, and the Arabian and
Egyptian deserts. They were defended by
powerful frontier fortresses, such as Singidunum,
Dara and Edessa. Such threats as there were, the
Sassanian Persians in the east, the Bulgars along
the lower Danube, and the desert tribes, were
more or less contained. Internally there were the
rivalries of the circus factions, but religious
divisions were more serious. The emperor and
the Church at Constantinople were caught
between those who valued ecclesiastical unity
and the link with the papacy enshrined at the
council of Chalcedon (451) and those who
favoured an independent Byzantine Church. The
latter had been in the ascendant since c. 484,
when the Acacian schism separated the Churches
12
of Rome and Constantinople. Even before
coming to the throne Justinian worked for
communion with Rome, which was achieved in
518. This reorientation implied an increased
interest in the west, largely dominated by
Germanic tribes which had adopted the Arian
heresy. There was some discrimination against
the native Catholic communities, and in North
Africa under the Vandals outright persecution.
Justinian saw himself as protector of the Catholic
Church. In 533 he launched an expedition against
the Vandals, and his commander, Belisarius, took
Carthage, the Vandalic capital, and recovered the
North African provinces. Next Justinian
interfered in Ostrogothic Italy. In 535 Belisarius
seized Sicily and invaded Italy. The key was
Rome, which Belisarius took in 536. His
successful defence of the city sapped Ostrogothic
resistance, and he entered their capital of
Ravenna in 540. The Ostrogoths were confined
to the Po valley.
These relatively easy victories were to be
tested over the next decade. The Sassanian king
of kings, Chosroes I (531–79), sacked Antioch
in 540, and his armies captured Petra which
commanded access to the Black Sea and control
of Lazica. In 544 the city of Edessa beat off a
Persian attack and a truce was concluded. Both
sides were suffering from the effects of the
bubonic plague which had struck in 541/2. The
loss of life at Constantinople was calamitous.
The administration and the economy were
paralysed. The Ostrogoths recovered most of
Italy and the Slavs, massed along the Danube,
raided deep into the European provinces of the
empire. Justinian’s government slowly began
to recover its equilibrium. In 550 the European
provinces were cleared of Slav raiders. In 552
Narses invaded Italy with an army depending
heavily on contingents recruited beyond the
Danube from the Herules, the Gepids and
Lombards. The Ostrogoths were overwhelmed
and Italy was restored to the empire.
Meanwhile an expedition, despatched in 550,
recovered southern Spain from the Visigoths,
as well as the North African coast around
Septem (Ceuta). Along the eastern frontier
Petra was recovered from the Sassanians in 551
and with it control of Lazica. In the desert war
the Ghassanids, an Arab tribe allied to the
Byzantines, bested the Lakmids, who were
clients of the Sassanians. In 562 a peace was
concluded between Persia and Byzantium,
designed to last for fifty years. Among other
things it regulated cross-border trade, trade
routes being an element in ByzantineSassanian rivalry. The Byzantines were
dependent on these for raw silk to feed their
industry which was centred on Berytus.
Thanks to heavy investment in fortifications
the Danube frontier held, but there was intense
pressure from the tribes, Slavs and others, who
crowded along it. To counter this, Justinian
turned to the Avars, recently arrived from
central Asia and settled to the north of the
Crimea. It was a miscalculation. After
Justinian’s death the Avars destroyed the
Gepids in 567, pushed the Lombards into Italy,
and intensified Slav raiding of Byzantine
territories. It contributed to the eventual
disintegration of Justinian’s empire which was
already apparent in the ecclesiastical field,
where independent Churches were coming
into being in Syria and Egypt. It has been said
that Justinian’s reign witnessed a belated
attempt to unify a far-flung Empire that was
gradually losing its cohesion’.
M.Angold
The Expansion of Islam in the
Mediterranean Area (7th–9th Centuries)
Within ten years of Mohammad’s death in 632
the armies of Islam stormed out of Arabia,
overwhelmed the Sassanians of Persia, and
wrested Syria, Palestine and Egypt from the
Byzantine Empire. The Arabs were formidable
because of their mobility. In 636 they
concentrated at Yarmuk beyond the Jordan and
completely defeated the Byzantine armies. The
victory brought them Damascus, which became
their headquarters. In 637/8 Jerusalem fell,
followed quickly by Antioch and Edessa. The
14
conquest of Palestine and Syria was completed
in 642 when Caesarea was captured. Gaza had
already fallen, and the conquest of Egypt was
completed with the surrender of Alexandria
(642).
The Byzantine Empire had to meet the challenge.
It contained the Arabs in Anatolia by evolving the
theme system of defence. Initially, this meant
dividing Anatolia into three military commands:
Opsikion, Anatolikon and Armeniakon. The
Opsikion, originally the strategic reserve, was now
quartered across the approaches to Constantinople.
The Anatolikon was the old army of the East, but
now withdrawn to defend south-eastern Anatolia.
The Armeniakon was the army of Armenia, now
established in northern Anatolia and covering the
routes from Melitene and the middle Euphrates.
The threat from the Arabs was all the more
formidable because they took to the sea. They
occupied Cyprus (649–50) and destroyed the
Byzantine fleet at Phoinix (655) off the coast of
Anatolia. Constantinople was blockaded from 674
to 678, but this attack was beaten off with Greek
fire. Another assault similarly failed in 718. From
then on Constantinople and Anatolia were
relatively secure, though there were intermittent
raids down to the mid-ninth century, some
penetrating to within striking distance of
Constantinople.
The Byzantines were less successful in holding
the Arabs in the Mediterranean. Carthage finally
succumbed in 697, and from their new capital of
Kairuan the Arabs converted the Berbers. This
fuelled the Muslim advance into Spain. Toledo,
the Visigothic capital, fell in 711 and by 718 the
conquest of Spain was virtually complete. The
Muslims advanced northwards across the
Pyrenees, but their defeat in 732 by the Franks at
the battle of Tours limited any further conquests
in this area. Their efforts were concentrated in
the Mediterranean. Crete fell in 824 and a start
was made on the conquest of Sicily from the
Byzantines. They established a base at Palermo,
but it was not until 878 that the Byzantine
provincial capital of Syracuse fell. In 840 Bari was
captured and became the centre of an emirate
which terrorized southern Italy and the Adriatic.
It was recovered in 876 by the Byzantines and a
degree of stability was restored in the central
Mediterranean.
The Muslim advance stretched Byzantine
resources to their limit, for it was also involved
in the Balkans. In 582 Sirmium fell to the Avars,
and their Slav tributaries swarmed into the
Balkans. They settled on a permanent basis and
penetrated as far south as the Peloponnese,
where Monemvasia provided a refuge for the
native population. In 679 the Bulgarians crossed
the Danube and settled the lands to the south.
Byzantine territories were now limited to Thrace
and a few towns along the fringes of the Aegean,
such as Thessalonica, which withstood a series
of Slav sieges. To hold these areas the themes of
Thrace and Hellas were established at the end of
the seventh century. From the late eighth century
a determined effort was made to strengthen the
Byzantine hold in Europe. This culminated in the
reoccupation of the Peloponnese and the creation
(c. 805) of the theme of the Peloponnese with its
headquarters at Corinth.
The Byzantine Empire survived the assaults
and losses of territory which occurred from the
seventh to the early ninth centuries. In many
ways, it emerged all the stronger, thanks to its
capital Constantinople and the evolution of the
theme system.
M.Angold
Italy in the Eighth Century
The invasion launched by war-bands of Lombard
and other peoples led by Alboin in 568 had a
decisive effect on the map of Italy for centuries.
Much of the north was rapidly conquered,
including Milan in 569 and Pavia in 572. The
inadequate Byzantine garrisons were thrown
into disarray, Lombard raiding parties
penetrated into Tuscany and the Rome area and
semi-autonomous duchies were set up in the
16
south at Spoleto and Benevento. Gradually the
empire was able to put up more effective
resistance by exploiting Lombard divisions,
bribing the Franks to invade the Lombard
kingdom, recruiting Lombard renegades as
mercenaries and concentrating authority in the
hands of one military governor, known by 584
as the exarch. By 603, when a truce was declared,
the empire retained secure control of the Rome
and Ravenna areas, together with a corridor
following the line of the Via Amerina through
Umbria, and coastal enclaves around Venice,
Genoa, Naples and other southern cities.
For much of the seventh century the frontier
remained static, broken by King Rothari’s capture
of Genoa in 643 and the defeat of the Emperor
Constans’ expedition against Benevento in 663/
4. As the empire became increasingly endangered
by threats in the east, more power within the
Byzantine territories was exercised by the local
military garrisons and their leaders, and in the
case of Rome by the pope. In the Lombard
kingdom dynastic instability did not prevent
increasing prosperity and adoption of Roman
institutions. By c. 680 the Lombards had dropped
their Arian and pagan beliefs in favour of
Catholic Christianity and secured recognition
from the empire. Gradually their pressure on the
imperial provinces increased, as the Romans
became discontented with the religious and
taxation policies of the eastern empire and King
Liutprand (712–44) attempted to unite the
peninsula under Lombard rule. Resistance to
such a take-over was led by the popes, who
remained essentially loyal to Byzantium, but they
were unable to gain any substantial aid from their
imperial ‘protectors’. Following the Lombard
Aistulf’s capture of Ravenna in 751, and threats
to Rome itself, Pope Stephen II obtained the
intervention of the Frankish king Pepin III, who
defeated Aistulf and recognized sweeping papal
claims over much of central Italy (Donation of
Pepin, 756). Threats were renewed by Aistulf’s
successor Desiderius against Pope Hadrian I,
who called on Pepin’s son Charles to intervene
in 773. In 774 Charles captured Pavia and became
king of the Lombards. The Lombard kingdom
retained its distinctive social and governmental
institutions and only gradually did an influx of
Frankish officials and an increase in the wealth
and power of the Church take place.
The political map of Italy remained confused
in the late eighth century. Benevento (unlike its
neighbour to the north, Spoleto) remained
outside effective Frankish control and became a
principality and a centre of traditional Lombard
legitimacy under Desiderius’ son-in-law Arichis,
often allying itself with Byzantium to preserve
its independence. The empire itself retained Sicily
and its footholds in Calabria and Apulia, together
with the nominal allegiance of the maritime cities
of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples and Venice. Its province
of Istria fell to the Franks in the late eighth
century. The papacy’s claim to much of central
Italy, including southern Tuscany, Spoleto, as well
as the duchy of Rome and the old Exarchate, was
zealously propagated by Lateran officials on the
basis of the Donation of Constantine (a
contemporary forgery) as well as the vague
promises of the Frankish kings. In no sense,
however, did it amount to a papal state. In many
areas the papacy was more concerned with
estates and rights than overall jurisdiction, while
in others the Franks were induced by bribes or
Realpolitik to leave power in the hands of local
figures such as the archbishop of Ravenna. Even
in the duchy of Rome, the papacy’s authority was
far from secure, as was shown by the revolt
against Pope Leo III (795–816), which led to the
latter’s appeal to Charles for aid and the Frankish
king’s assumption of the imperial title in St
Peter’s on Christmas Day 800.
T.S.Brown
The Carolingian Empire under
Charlemagne, 768–814
Charles Martel (mayor of the palace 717–41) and
Pepin III (mayor 741–51, king 751–68) established
the dominance of the Arnulfing/ Carolingian
family in Francia by their military success against
18
Arabs, Aquitanians, Frisians and various peoples
east of the Rhine, by building networks of
aristocratic support and by forging a close
alliance with the Church. Following his election
as king of the Franks with papal approval in 751,
Pepin launched two expeditions against the
Lombards and spent his last years campaigning
against the Aquitanians and Saxons. On Pepin’s
death the kingdom was divided between his two
sons, but on the death of the younger, Carloman,
in 771, the elder, Charles ‘the Great’
(Charlemagne) became sole king. An energetic
and charismatic war-leader, he exploited the
superior numbers and technology of the
Prankish army in campaigns against the Saxons
(772, 775, 776), against the Lombards, whose
kingdom he took over in 774, and against the
Spanish Muslims, an unsuccessful expedition
culminating in the massacre of his rearguard by
Basques in 778. The 780s saw renewed campaigns
against the Saxons (780, 782, 784, 785), visits to
Italy to see his close ally the pope and intimidate
the Lombard duchy of Benevento (781, 787), and
the deposition of Duke Tassilo of Bavaria (788).
In the 790s Charlemagne turned his attention to
the powerful tributary empire of the Avars,
which he destroyed in a series of campaigns (791,
795 and 796).
Charles also became increasingly involved
with non-military matters. He began to attract
scholarly advisers to his court, such as the
Englishman Alcuin in 782, he constructed a new
palace complex at Aachen (his main winter
residence from 794), expressed his theological
views in the Libri Carolini (794) and developed
diplomatic ties with the Caliphate of Baghdad
and Byzantium (with whom marriage alliances
were planned). The seizure of sole power by the
Empress Irene in 797 and the blinding of Pope
Leo III in 799 proved the catalysts for the most
controversial event of his reign—his intervention
in Rome in 800 and coronation as Roman
emperor by the restored pope on Christmas Day.
The imperial title should be seen less as the
culmination of Charles’ policies or as a key stage
in the formation of a distinct Western identity
than as the product of particular, mainly local
factors. The idea of a Christian Roman Empire
19
clearly had an appeal to Charles’ ecclesiastical
advisers and an emphasis on imperial renovatio
can be found in art, coins, charters, writings
associated with the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’
and the issue of new more ambitious capitularies.
In practice, however, the imperial title proved a
hindrance to Charles, by tying his office too
closely to the papacy and Rome and
antagonizing Byzantium. Disenchantment is
reflected in Charles’ divisio regnorum between his
three sons in 806, which makes no mention of an
empire, and his personal coronation of Louis the
Pious in 813. No serious attempt was made to
create a new universal identity for Charles’
subjects. Instead a clear ethnic distinction was
stressed between Franks and other ethnic groups
by the writing down of separate laws for each
people ruled by Charles. The machinery for
administering the ‘empire’ remained crude, with
a minimal central bureaucracy and overdependence on powerful local counts.
20
Innovations such as the use of capitularies,
inspectors (missi) and legal advisers (scabini) were
largely ineffective. Government depended more
on success in war, with its consequent flow of
land and booty, and personal ties such as oaths
and grants of benefices to royal vassals and
others.
Charles’ less active later years were marked
by feelings of decline, by concern about the
succession and by external threats posed by the
Danes, Arabs and Slavs. The fragility of his
empire became evident during the reign of his
conscientious but ill-advised son Louis (814–40).
However, the fundamental structural
weaknesses should not obscure the overriding
commitment of Charles and his advisers to
learning, justice and the reform of the Church,
aspirations which were only realized in part but
served as lasting ideals for later medieval rulers.
T.S.Brown
Division of the Carolingian Empire, 843
The mismatch between administrative
weaknesses and ideological aspirations in
Charlemagne’s empire gave rise to problems in
the reign of his son Louis the Pious (814–40).
Although his early rule was conscientious,
personal and party conflicts provoked civil war
between the king and his sons from 830. After
Louis’ death in 840 his eldest son, Lothar, whose
power-base was Italy, sought to impose his
power as emperor north of the Alps and deprive
his half-brother Charles the Bald of his
inheritance in west Francia. This encouraged
Charles to make an alliance with his other halfbrother, Louis the German, and together they
defeated Lothar at Fontenoy in 841. The alliance
was consolidated by oaths taken by each king’s
followers at Strasbourg in 842. Lothar was
compelled at Verdun in 843 to agree to a division
of the empire into three approximately equal
parts. Lothar kept his imperial title and lands
stretching from the North Sea to Italy, which
incorporated the imperial centres of Aachen,
Pavia and Rome, while Charles obtained the west
Frankish lands and Louis those east of the Rhine.
This arrangement was not envisaged as replacing
the empire by nascent nation-states, but in
practice centrifugal pressures were increased by
rivalries between the rulers and the pressures of
aristocratic supporters to regain offices and lands
lost in the division.
Lothar’s kingdom lacked viability and was
divided in 855 among his three sons, none of
whom had male heirs. As a result the kingdom
of Lothar II (855–69) in the low countries was
carved up between his uncles, Louis and Charles.
In west Francia Charles fought manfully against
Viking invaders and aristocratic separatism and
succeeded in becoming emperor after the death
of his nephew, Louis II, in 875. However, after
his death (877) his descendants proved
incompetent and short-lived. Louis the German
proved the strongest king, but on his death (876)
his kingdom was divided, and his sons died in
rapid succession, apart from the youngest,
Charles the Fat, who ruled a reunited empire
fortuitously and ignominiously from 884 until
his deposition in 887.
T.S.Brown
The Byzantine Empire under the
Macedonian Dynasty (9th–11th
Centuries)
From the mid-ninth century Byzantium took the
offensive, responding to changes beyond its
frontiers. After the battle of the Bishop’s Meadow
(863) the Arabs were never a real threat to
Anatolia. Along the eastern frontier petty
emirates emerged, not all of them in Muslim
hands. Tephrike, for example, was held by the
heretical Paulicians. Its capture in 878 brought
the Byzantines within striking distance of the
upper Euphrates. Care was taken to consolidate
advances by creating new border themes, such as
Mesopotamia and Lykandos (c. 900). Melitene,
key to the middle Euphrates, fell in 934, and
Theodosioupolis (Erzerum) in 949, allowing the
Byzantines to exercise more influence in
Armenian lands, where a policy of piecemeal
annexation was pursued. In 968 the Armenian
principality of Taron was annexed and turned
into a theme. These advances were complemented
by the conquest of Tarsus and of Cilicia (965).
Antioch fell in 969 and the city of Aleppo was
put under tribute. The eastern frontier thus
advanced from the Taurus mountains and the
Pontic Alps to northern Syria and the lands of
the middle and upper Euphrates.
In the Mediterranean the Byzantines were still
on the defensive in the early tenth century, but
the Arab corsairs of Crete were driven out in 960/
21
61 and Cyprus was taken in 965. Further
successes in the eastern Mediterranean were
checked by the arrival of the Fatimids in Egypt
(969). They quickly extended into Palestine and
Syria.
Conditions had also changed rapidly to the
north of the Black Sea. Ever since the seventh
century Byzantium had relied on alliance with
the Khazars. From the early ninth century,
however, a new people appeared in the shape of
the Russians, who controlled the rivers leading
from the Baltic Sea and the Caspian. Byzantium
reacted by creating a theme in the Crimea centred
on Cherson (833). This did not prevent a Russian
attack nearly taking Constantinople by surprise
(860). Other Russian attacks followed in 907 and
941, but Byzantium countered by offering the
Russians valuable trading concessions.
The Russians also had to contend with the
Petcheneks, the dominant power on the steppes.
Byzantium cultivated them—they could cut the
Russian trade route down the Dnieper from Kiev,
and they also threatened the Bulgarians across
the Danube. The conversion of the latter to
Orthodoxy in 865 promised to bring them within
the Byzantine orbit, but the Bulgarian tsar,
Symeon (c. 893–927), was a more able opponent
than his pagan forebears. He won notable
victories over the Byzantines, including the battle
of Acheloos (917), and in 921, 922 and 924
advanced to the walls of Constantinople. He
mastered the Balkans and even penetrated the
Peloponnese. He died in 927 and Byzantium
hastened to make peace with his son Peter (927–
69). Over the next forty years the balance of
power swung towards the Byzantines. In 967 the
Russian prince of Kiev, Svjatoslav, was called in
against the Bulgarians, but he determined to
conquer Bulgaria himself. The Russians were
finally defeated by the Byzantines at Silistria on
the Danube (971) and Bulgaria was annexed. The
returning Russians were caught by the
Petcheneks and Svjatoslav was killed. It was a
text-book demonstration of Byzantine
diplomacy. Svjatoslav’s death prepared the way
for the conversion of his son Vladimir to
Christianity.
Vladimir helped the Emperor Basil II (976–
1025) deal with a rebellion by the eastern themes,
thus contributing to his victory at Abydos (989).
These internal problems allowed the Bulgarians
to establish a new state centred on Ohrid in
Macedonia. Basil II concentrated on reducing the
Bulgarians. Victory at Kleidion (1014) was
decisive and by 1018 all resistance had collapsed.
Basil II now extended Byzantine control in
Armenia, annexing Vaspurakan (1021). He also
strengthened Byzantium’s hold in southern Italy,
defeating the Lombards at Cannae (1018). It was
an imposing achievement, but his successors
found it hard to defend the new frontiers.
M.Angold
Vikings
Between 800 and 1100 the peoples of Scandinavia
went from being an Iron Age to a fully medieval
society. The profound social transformations are
reflected in the changes in their adventurous
expeditions and in their use of silver at home.
Before 800 silver wealth was stored in jewellery,
often huge arm rings or brooches. We assume
many of these circulated as gifts, bride wealth,
blood money and plunder. By the twelfth century
kings had coins minted bearing their likeness and
most silver, in the shape of coins, was used in
straightforward financial exchanges or the
payment of rent or taxes or tithes. Whether silver
was the motor of social change or simply an
indispensable element of political and social
competition in an increasingly hierarchical
Scandinavian society, the Vikings burst out of
their homeland dramatically and often
terrifyingly in search of it.
In the ninth century they raided and traded
for silver, but to call these early Vikings
merchants is anachronistic. In Iceland’s famous
23
Njálssaga, a main character attempts to obtain hay
from a neighbour, asking if he would sell it to
him (denying any social relationship between
them), next if he would give it to him as a gift
(offering future friendship), and finally he had
to threaten to take it (confirming their enmity).
In the east, Swedes travelled huge distances
trading and swapping, buying and selling,
gifting and stealing at entrepots and towns a